President Barack Obama knows where the growth is. It's in Asia. And so next week, with hopes to get Asians to buy Made in the U.S.A., Obama will ship out to three southeast Asian nations between Nov. 17 and Nov. 20.

The President, fresh off his election victory Tuesday evening, will travel to Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, three growing emerging markets in the region, and all with good ties to Washington.

Obama is carving out new patterns for U.S. engagement in Asia, says Ernest Bower, a senior adviser and chair for Southeast Asia Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Bower said that no U.S. president since the Vietnam War era has made an Asia visit that focused completely on Southeast Asia.

"During his first term, Obama’s foreign policy team staked out a smart Asia policy that had southeast Asia at its core. The approach recognizes that the best way to manage a fast-growing China that is feeling its way to defining its regional and global role would be to create Asia-Pacific architectures that would encourage China to make and play by the rules defined collectively by the neighborhood," he said in an op-ed posted on CSIS's website Friday.

Obama's latest approach to the region does not intend to contain China, but rather to convince it to become a great power while remaining aligned with countries around the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Writes Bower, "President Obama’s Asia visit is a bold and politically courageous step. It should send Asia a strong signal of intent for a president who has proclaimed himself America’s first Pacific President. To fulfill that self-described legacy, Obama must not only continue his good record of visiting the region and getting to know its leaders, he will need to lead a discussion among Americans about why Asia is important to this country’s immediate economic recovery."